The Commoner.
WILLIAH J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
V, .
Vol. i. No. 42.
Lincoln, Nebraska, November 8, 1901.
$1.00 a Year
The Election Returns.
In order to have The Commoner reach all the
subscribers before the end of the week, it is neces
sary to begin mailing on Tuesday. It Is impossible,
therefore, to report or comment upon the election
returns in this issue. They will be discussed next
week.
JJJ
Hoar is Consistent.
Senator Hoar has shown his consistency by
declining an invitation to deliver a political
eulogy on the late president. In explanation of
his refusal he says that he is extremely busy just
now, but adds:
"I ought in frankness to state another
and even stronger reason. I think the eulogy
on the president should be delivered by some
person who was in full accord with him upon
the principal political measure of his adminis
tration. I never questioned his absolute hon
esty, his devotion to the public welfare, his '
love of liberty and his desire to do his duty as
God gave him to see it. I was fully in accord
with him on the great fiscal measures with
which he was identified. But, a3 you know,
I differed with him and his administration
(and my opinion on that subject has been
strengthened and not weakened in the lapse
of time) in regard to his policy in dealing
with the Philippine islands."
Like many .others who differed with Mr. Mc-
Kinley on one or more political questions, Senator
Hoarhaexresj$d4ii
personal -virtues of the dead chief magistrate his
sorrow at his death and his detestation of the man
ner of, his taking off, but he thinks, and very
properly, that praise of the president's views on
political questions should come from some one
in harmony with all of the policies of the admin
istration. It will be remembered that the Massa
chusetts senator declared that, if an imperial pol
icy was pursued, the fall of the republic would
date from Mr. McKinley's administration, and it
wLi also be remembered that he closed his mem
orable speech against imperialism by appealing
from "Philip drunk to Philip sober." He says
that his opinion on this subject has been strength
ened rather than weakened by subsequent obser
vation. How, then, could he be expected to deliver
an eulogy that would satisfy partisan republicans?
Opponents of imperialism may-bo expected to
chare in all exercises that give expression to the
unanimous regard for Mr. McKinley as a man
and to the respect entertained for the high office
to which he was elevated by his countrymen,
but they cannot be expected to participate in any
demonstration which could be construed as an in
dorsement of tho late president's change from hos
tility to "forcible annexation," and "criminal ag
gression" to the advocacy of "benevolent assimila
tion." The moment the republicans attempt to
use the life or death of Mr. McKinley to advance
tho policies for which their party stands, that mo
ment they substitute partisan ends for a patriotic
purpose and should confine their appeals to those '
who are republicans on all questions.
JJJ
Death Without Hope.
The lesson taught by tho last hours of Czolgosz
should not be lost upon the world. He expired like
one who sinks in mid-ocean without a sail in
- sight. How barren of real happiness must be the
life of one who denies the existence of a God, de
fies all government, and cultivates tho belief that
he can, without moral guilt, take tho life of a fel
low being meroly because that follow being is ad
ministering for a little while tho authority con
ferred upon him by his countrymen. How can he
delude himself with tho belief that he is living
upon a more exalted plane than ordinary people?
Consider the perennial joys of tho gray-haired
patriarch who learned in youth that "Tho fear of
God is the beginning of wisdom," who has met
lifo's responsibilities with a prayer for light to
see his duty and courage to perform It, and who
approaches the grave "like one who wraps the
drapery of his couch about him and lies down to
pleasant dreams." Consider the life of such a one,
and compare it with the career of one who lives in
constant rebellion against nature and in constant
antagonism to society, and then onds life as a
lonely traveler would turn from a deserted house
out into a dark and starless night.
Compare tho sweet contentment of one who
accepts life's successes and reverses with the senti
ment of the psalmist: "The Lord is my Shepherd;
I shall not want. He maketh mo to lie down in
green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Yea, though I. walk through tho valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: For
Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they
comfort me." Compare this with the lot of one
who curses tho Creator and His creatures, and
then swears back at the echo of his blasphemy.-
and with it the control of tho attornoy general's
office. They will bo satisfied with nothing less,
but as soon as their .real purpose is fully under
stood they will be powerless to thwart tho honost
aims and plans of the rank and file of the party.
JJJ
r
One Man's Great Power.
Walter Wellman, tho well-known correspon
dent of tho Chicago Rocord-Herald, writing to his
paper under date of Washington, October 28, said;
President Roosevelt today put his finger on
the button which moves most of tho wires in
the United States senate Senator Aldrlch of
Rhode Island is the button. He is tho greatest
wire-puller in tho upper branch of the Amer
ican congress. In all matters pertaining to
tariff and finance he is by long odds tho most
influential man in tho senate. Ho is the ac
knowledged prince of the politicians of that
body. He has fixed more tariff schedules to
suit Interested parties, defeated more legisla
tion that some ono of wealth and power did
not want, achieved a greater success as a
managing editor of tho dignified senate, than
any other man In all its history.
President Roosevelt had Mr. Aldrlch at
tho White house today for a luncheon and a
' conference. What was said by either of them
no ono knows. But it is presumed that the
president endeavored to secure Mr. Aldrlch's
consent to the ratification of the French rec
iprocity treaty as a sort of start on the rec
iprocity program which the president has
--F
n
verv much, thouch not too much. at. heart.
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fc&i.;.a.w,wvto CTf? .:TMliiW''vrrr'M'trrr',,m
w t.'.' wy wcMar-riw',!,.-- "t--t- "Wl" COIUO OUl III IUO WU. ' ,
, An Interesting Letter.
The editor of Tho Commoner has received an
interesting letter from one who describes himself
as a former gold democrat, one who in 1896 sup
ported the Palmer and Buckner ticket until elec
tion day and then voted the republican ticket. Ho
says that when the campaign of 1900 began tho
republicans advanced the same arguments that
they had in 1896, namely, that "if a party comes
Into power that will not cater to the large insti
tutions, capitalists and bankers, the money of the
country will be taken from circulation."
He says that this was the argument which
caused him to leave the democratic party in 1896,
but that in 1900 tho same argument drove him
"from the party that advocated such unpatriotic
principles."
He commends the work which The Commoner
is doing and protests against any surrender to tho
reorganizers. Ho says: "What would democratic
victory amount to if tho leadership was in the
hands of those who represent the financial insti
tutions of this country? What every true patriotic
democrat wants Is a victory at tho polls won on
the principles, set forth in the Kansas City plat
form." He suggests that it takes many people a long
time to learn to vote for their own interests, (and
adds that it took him four years), but insists that
the fight must 1)0 continued until a victory is
won. The letter Is referred to because so many
democrats do not seem to realize that reorganiza
tion, as advocated by the gold democrats, would
mean the despotic control of conventions and
democratic administrations, (if there were any
under such leadership) by the financial interests
that are today arrayed against the masses on ev
ery Important issue. It is not so much the gold
standard that these men want as the absolute and
unquestioned control of the treasury department,
It was intended that the senate a a body
should have power and Influence, in certain mat
ters, co-ordipate with the president; but It was
never intended that any single senator should
have not only a greater power than the president,
but tho "power to move the entire senate."
Senator Aldrlch is a republican. He belongs
to that school which tho Record-Herald and its
able correspondent have told us had a monopoly
on the championship of "national honor." But
here Mr. Wellman informs us that this champion
of "national honor" has "fixed more tariff sche
dules to suit interested parties, defeated more
legislation that some ono of wealth and power did
not want, achieved a greater success' as managing
editor of the dignified senate than' any other man
In all its history."
And yet wo are told that we are living irr a
government in which the people rule. We are
told that the republican party is not the party of a
special class, but that it is a party having an eyo
single to public welfare!
JJJ
Real Greatness.
A distinguished New York citizen, speaking at
a gathering of young men, said: "The way to mako
a city or a country great is to make all their cltl
zens great. PIcLlng some one fellow and putting
him' in office and telling him ho is a great fellow
is not going to bring on the millenium."
This is but another way of saying that the
strongest chain Is no stronger than its weakest
link. This was not ah original thought. It is an
idea which the founders of this government sought
to Impress upon the men of colonial times. It Is
an idea which the statesmen who succeeded the
men of tho colonial period endeavored to empha
size at every critical period of our country's his
tory. Because this Is a republican form of govern
ment in which the character of policies put in
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